To choose the most healthy plant of a lot, look under the pot, the roots must be at least beginning to come out of the holes of the pot. Checking the root growth will also help you avoid one of the classic tricks to make you pay more for getting less. When a shop is offering two different sizes of pots for the same plant, i.e. a 10 gallon pot and a 15 gallon pot, of course the 15 gallon potted plant is more expensive and this is fair as it took the producer more time to let it grow to a bigger size, but sometimes, the 15 gallon potted plant is nothing other than the same plant as is sold in the 10 gallon pot which has just been recently put in a 15 gallon pot with just a little bit more soil. So check on the top ot the pot usually you can see the difference between the soil of the recently repotted plant and the soil along the side of the pot which is softer, because there is no root yet in that part and again look under the pot. If there are no roots coming out of the holes, do not buy it.
Hope this helps!
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I didn't know that! Thank you for posting.
This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments. Thanks so much for the education, Catherine.
I don't agree that this is necessarily trickery. Sometimes it's simply trying to meet a demand. If 50 ten gallon and 50 fifteen gallon plants are ordered from the nursery by the garden center, the nurseryman may finish out the 50 fifteen gallon order with 10 plants not yet quite matured to the 15 gallon stage. He might do this because that's all he had in stock.
But whether trickery or not, transplanted plants should be allowed to mature to the specified pot size before being sent to market and a wise shopper will look for all the markers you mentioned to be sure they're getting what they pay for.
Good tip!
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